document_title: List of The O.C. characters

question_text: who plays luke's dad on the oc

question_tokens: who plays luke 's dad on the oc

text: List of The O.C. characters

text: Main characters[edit]

text: The following is a list of series regulars from The O.C..

text:
Actor
Character
Seasons

1
2
3
4

Peter Gallagher
Sandy Cohen
Main

Kelly Rowan
Kirsten Cohen
Main

Benjamin McKenzie
Ryan Atwood
Main

Mischa Barton
Marissa Cooper
Main

Adam Brody
Seth Cohen
Main

Chris Carmack
Luke Ward
Main
Special Guest

Tate Donovan
Jimmy Cooper
Main
Recurring
Guest

Melinda Clarke
Julie Cooper
Main

Rachel Bilson
Summer Roberts
Main

Alan Dale
Caleb Nichol
Recurring
Main

Willa Holland[a]
Kaitlin Cooper
Recurring

Recurring
Main

Autumn Reeser
Taylor Townsend

Recurring
Main

text: Jump up ^ Shailene Woodley portrayed Kaitlyn Cooper during the first season.

tag: ol

text: Sandy Cohen[edit]

text: Portrayed by Peter Gallagher, an idealistic public defender who takes in Ryan Atwood in the pilot episode, much to the dismay of his wife, Kirsten. He is the husband of Kirsten, the father of Seth Cohen, and the legal guardian of Ryan Atwood. Although he lives in a large upper class house, his politics are left-leaning and open-minded, causing friction between himself and the community. Peter Gallagher described the character as a "leftie Jewish guy from the Bronx".[1] Sandy deals with many conflicts throughout the series, such as trying to gain acceptance from his father-in-law while being financially supported by his wife, and raising two teenagers in a (sometimes) corrupt environment.

text: Kirsten Cohen[edit]

text: Portrayed by Kelly Rowan, she is the wife of Sandy Cohen, the mother of Seth, adoptive mother of Ryan, and former CFO of her father's (Caleb Nichol) real estate company, the Newport Group. Before she met Sandy she dated and grew up with Jimmy Cooper father of Marissa Cooper, with whom she remains friends. Kirsten was very suspicious of Sandy's decision to bring Ryan into her home in the pilot episode, but in the third episode, she and Seth take Ryan back home after he is beaten in the juvenile detention center. By the end of the episode, Ryan's biological mother, Dawn Atwood, asks Kirsten to adopt Ryan, figuring he is better off in Newport than returning to Chino. She has had trouble with alcohol, which was triggered by the failing deteriorating relationship between her and her father, and had an abortion early in her life, which belonged to Jimmy. Kirsten continues to open a dating service with Julie, and become a mother of two at the end of the fourth season.The character's politics and lifestyle are conservative, a contrast to her husband. Kelly Rowan described the character as seemingly more "together" than herself during an interview.[2]

text: Ryan Atwood[edit]

text: Portrayed by Benjamin McKenzie, a troubled teenager from Chino who is brought into the privileged community of Newport Beach, California after his mother, Dawn Atwood, throws him out of their family home. Ryan is subsequently taken in by his public defender, Sandy Cohen. He forms fast bonds with the entire Cohen family, especially Sandy's son Seth, as well as an extreme attachment to the girl next door, Marissa Cooper. Ryan slowly finds himself a place within his new materialistic society, and makes of the most of his situation by not only completing high school, but also continuing on to university. Casting director Patrick Rush found the role of Ryan Atwood particularly hard to cast and only invited Benjamin McKenzie to an audition after Fox had made them aware of the young actor after his unsuccessful audition for a UPN sitcom.[3] Rush said, "When Benjamin [McKenzie] came in, he wasn't physically what Josh had envisioned, but he inhabited the character unlike anyone we had seen. I think that the character of Ryan is a kid that always seems a little lost and has a sense of mystery and danger; Benjamin has all those qualities."[4] Chad Michael Murray was originally offered the role of Ryan Atwood but turned it down for the lead role of Lucas Scott on One Tree Hill.[5]

text: Marissa Cooper[edit]

text: Portrayed by Mischa Barton, throughout the series Marissa is frequently battling with drugs and alcohol, including nearly killing herself on a trip in Mexico with her friends.. Marissa's relationships with her parents, boyfriends, and classmates are often tumultuous. She is Summer's best friend and Ryan's on and off love interest. Marissa is portrayed as a "spoiled girl who adjusts to being poor".[6] The casting director referred to Marissa as "a girl stuck in the trappings of her life who seemed older than her actual age."[4] Mischa Barton left the series at the end of season three when her character was subsequently written off by being killed in a car accident. Commenting on her departure, Barton said, "My character has been through so, so much and there's really nothing more left for her to do."[7]

text: Seth Cohen[edit]

text: Portrayed by Adam Brody, the awkward adolescent son of Sandy and Kirsten Cohen. He is known for his quick quips, comic book fascination, and pop-culture references. He is also the love interest of Summer Roberts, on whom he had a crush on since third grade. Seth has been called a "Jewish nerd into obscure emo bands", who "starts dating a gorgeous, popular virgin."[6] The New York Times characterised Seth as "eccentric and literate, Seth professes actual wanderlust (...) The show's press materials maintain that he's an existential hero along the lines of Holden Caulfield."[8] Adam Brody's portrayal of Seth was well received and is considered one of the overall highlights of the series.[9]

text: Summer Roberts[edit]

text: Portrayed by Rachel Bilson, Summer is, throughout the first few episodes, portrayed as a shallow, materialistic gossip who is ditzy and can have an occasional bitchy nature. Spoiled by her divorced father, she considers him to be her best friend, and his opinion matters as much, if not more than her own. Summer was unusual in combining the qualities of a conventionally attractive and desirable character with a tough, outspoken, "take-charge" attitude. She is portrayed as highly sexualised and initially appears stupid; later she undergoes something of a transformation and becomes far more intelligent and concerned about environmental issues, a change possibly due to her relationship with the geeky Seth Cohen. Initially Summer was only intended as a small supporting character, only there as an object of fantasy for Seth and a friend for Marissa Cooper, while Ryan Atwood and Marissa were the lead couple. However, due to Bilson's performance, Summer became an increasingly important character.

text: Luke Ward[edit]

text: Portrayed by Chris Carmack, Marissa's first boyfriend and regular cast member for most of the first season. Luke is initially the main antagonist of the series, coining the series famous "Welcome to the O.C., bitch!" line during a fight with Ryan in the premiere episode. However, he later becomes the main "comic punching bag" for the other characters.[6] Josh Schwartz characterised the later Luke as "strumming a guitar being a goofball."[10]

text: Jimmy Cooper[edit]

text: Portrayed by Tate Donovan, Marissa and Kaitlin's father (and Julie's ex-husband). He gets in trouble for embezzlement and must face the consequences of his actions and its effect on his reputation and personal life After his divorce from Julie, he pursues Hayley Nichol, Kirsten's younger sister, who eventually leaves him to further her fashion career in Japan.. He was a regular cast member for Season 1 and the beginning of Season 2. Jimmy's character made a brief appearance on season 3, but was quickly left when Jimmy is forced to leave town, the morning of his wedding to Julie, due to money problems. One interviewer characterised Jimmy as a "lovable deadbeat dad".[11] Josh Schwartz has referred to the character as a "cat" in DVD Commentaries. The character is portrayed as flighty and perpetually in financial debt despite warm relationships with his daughters. The character was ranked eighth by Entertainment Weekly on a list of the worst dads in television history.[citation needed]

text: Julie Cooper[edit]

text: Portrayed by Melinda Clarke, the mother of Kaitlin Cooper and Marissa Cooper. At the beginning of the show she is married to financial planner Jimmy Cooper. She is often characterised as being devious, selfish, and shallow. However, she reveals a more vulnerable and empathetic part of herself a number of times during the series. Melinda Clarke summarised her character as being "clearly just such a money-digging whore. To me, it’s so funny now to see The Real Housewives of Orange County because you realise it exists and that’s what Julie was. Julie was obviously the original housewife." Melinda went on to commend the character's "incredible arc," saying that Julie started as "this woman who was so superficial but, of course, she’s not just one-dimensional, she’s multi-dimensional. Starting in her pink Juicy sweat suit outfit and then by the end she’s graduated from college and moving on with her life. She’s a survivor."

text: Caleb Nichol[edit]

text: Portrayed by Alan Dale, Kirsten's businessman father and later Julie Cooper's husband. His character recurs throughout the first season, and he becomes a regular during the second season, but comes to a sudden stop when his character suffers from a fatal heart attack during the season 2 finale. The Chicago Tribune characterised Caleb as a "gruff, uncompromising Newport Beach, Calif., real-estate developer". When asked by the Tribune about the character, Dale said, ""The thing that's lovely about this character is that there's so much to do with him. His relationships are so complicated, and once the marriage happened, everyone was related in the show. That means he's got all these people to relate to, and he relates so badly with everyone."[12]

text: Taylor Townsend[edit]

text: Portrayed by Autumn Reeser, introduced in Season 3 as a neurotic perfectionist student. Her character's initial personality was referred to by many critics as similar to the character Tracy Flick from the film Election.[13][14][15] Taylor begins the series as a recurring villain before eventually becoming the second female lead in the fourth season. Autumn Reeser's performance was critically acclaimed. She reflected back on the character during a 2010 interview, saying "I feel like there’s a lot of girls out there who could really relate to her, who hadn’t seen themselves on TV in that way. I loved that about her. I loved that she made no apologies for who she was even though she wasn’t what all the magazines said was OK. She was like, “I’m still valid. And I’m awesome. And I know I’m odd, and that’s OK.”[16]

text: Kaitlin Cooper[edit]

text: Portrayed by Willa Holland. The role was originally played by Shailene Woodley as a recurring character during season 1. Kaitlin spends much of the series at boarding school before returning on a recurring basis in season 3 (now played by Holland) and finally becoming a regular character in season 4. The daughter of Jimmy Cooper and Julie Cooper-Nichol and sister to Marissa Cooper. Her personality is more similar to her mother's rather than her father's, and she is portrayed as a regular pot smoker and occasional dealer. Holland observed that "no one can control her" but that her arc in Season 4 finds the character maturing.[17] When asked about any disappointment over the recast, Shailene Woodley responded that, "I was 11 and I was on as a guest, recurring character, or whatever. My character went to boarding school and when they decided to bring her back, they actually re-auditioned me to bring her back. But I didn't go through puberty until late (...) So, there was no weirdness when Willa Holland got it because she was so obviously right for the role... and I was so obviously not [laughs]."[18] In the series, Willa Holland's character dates a character played by the popular music star Chris Brown in the fourth season of the show.

text: Recurring characters[edit]

text: The following is a list of characters that are, or at one time were, a recurring guest on the series; they are listed in the order that they first appeared on the show. Many characters have had storylines that have spanned multiple seasons, while the others are restricted to arcs that occurred during a single season of the show.

text:
Actor
Character
Duration

S1
S2
S3
S4

Daphne Ashbrook
Dawn Atwood
2

3

Bradley Stryker (S1)
Logan Marshall-Green (S2-S3)
Trey Atwood
2
8
1

Ashley Hartman
Holly Fischer
6

3

Kim Oja
Taryn Baker
4
1
2
2

Samaire Armstrong
Anna Stern
13

2

Bonnie Somerville
Rachel Hoffman
5

Rosalind Chao
Dr. Kim
3

3

Navi Rawat
Theresa Diaz
8
2
3

Brian McNamara
Carson Ward
2
1

Wayne Dalglish
Brad Ward
1

10

Corey Price
Eric Ward
1

10

Taylor Handley
Oliver Trask
6

Amanda Righetti
Hailey Nichol
10
2

Linda Lavin
Sophie Cohen
1
1

Michael Nouri
Dr. Neil Roberts
1
1
14
3

Nicholas Gonzales
D.J.

6

Michael Cassidy (actor)
Zach Stevens

19

Olivia Wilde
Alex Kelly

13

Shannon Lucio
Lindsay Gardner

12

Kathleen York
Renee Wheeler

12

Kim Delanay
Rebecca Bloom

5

Billy Campbell
Carter Buckley

7

Johnny Messner
Lance Baldwin

5

Marguerite Moreau
Reed Carlson

5

Nikki Griffin
Jess Sathers

6
1

Jeri Ryan
Charlotte Morgan

7

Eric Mabius
Jack Hess

4

Ryan Donowho
Johnny Harper

11

Johnny Lewis
Dennis Childress

9

Kayla Ewell
Casey

3

Erin Foster
Heather

4
1

Jeff Hephner
Matt Ramsey

14

Paula Trickey
Veronica Townsend

5
4

Cam Gigandet
Kevin Volchok

13
2

Nikki Reed
Sadie Campbell

6

Shaun Duke
Henry Griffin

4

Chris Pratt
Che Cook

9

Gary Grubbs
Gordon Bullit

6

Brandon Quinn
Spencer Bullit

6

Kevin Sorbo
Frank Atwood

7

text: Taryn Baker[edit]

text: Taryn Baker is one of the "Newpsies;" wealthy, bored women who live in Newport Beach and spend their days lunching, shopping and gossiping. Many of her appearances centered on her sexually adventurous side. In the first-season episode ("The Countdown"), she attended a swingers' party, claiming that such events had "saved [her] marriage." Later, she helped spread the rumour that Luke Ward's father had been having an affair with his male business partner ("The Secret"), and that this was why he had turned her down when she propositioned him. In the fourth season, it was revealed that swinging eventually didn't save her marriage, which ended in divorce. Since her divorce, she had been sleeping with as many young men as possible, and goes out clubbing most nights, inviting Julie Cooper to come with her on one occasion. ("The Metamorphosis"). She also appeared in flashback, in the fourth-season episode ("The Case of the Franks"), where it was revealed that she attended high school with Kirsten Cohen and Jimmy Cooper.

text: Rachel Hoffman[edit]

text: Rachel Hoffman is a former colleague of Sandy Cohen in the District Attorney's office. She invites him to work with her in a private firm called Partridge, Savage and Kahn. Sandy takes the offer, and later Sandy's wife, Kirsten, finds Rachel and Sandy enjoying a drink, causing tension between Sandy and Kirsten. Rachel shares the case of Balboa Heights with Sandy, because the plaintiff is Caleb Nichol's company. While negotiating with Caleb, Caleb accuses Sandy and Rachel of having an affair. Some time afterwards, when Sandy and Rachel work until late in Rachel's apartment, Rachel flirts with Sandy but he rejects her advances. When the chemistry between the two fizzles out, Sandy and Kirsten attempt to set her up with Jimmy Cooper, but fail.

text: Dr. Kim[edit]

text: Dr. Kim is the Dean of the Harbor High School. She gives Ryan Atwood a chance to enter Harbor if he passes an admission exam, which he does, although he leaves halfway through the exam when Seth Cohen and Summer Roberts barge into the room and beg Ryan to come with them to help Marissa Cooper, who is recovering from her drug overdose in Tijuana. She persuades Marissa to continue her role as social chair despite Marissa's tarnished reputation after overdosing on painkillers. She later returns to have a meeting with Kirsten, Sandy and Ryan, after Ryan reads Oliver Trask's files in the file storage room. In 2005, she was confronted by Julie Cooper and Sandy, claiming that she does not have the power to decide to expel Marissa and Ryan, after the gunshot incident, deferring to the new Dean of Discipline, Jack Hess. However, she assists in re-admitting Marissa into Harbor by revealing a precedent in 1996, in which a similar incident to Trey's shooting had occurred with a formerly suspended student. At Harbor's 2006 graduation, Summer spontaneously leaps into Dr. Kim's arms. Though never confirmed, it is possible she was replaced by Dean Torres in season 4.

text: Rosalind Chao, who portrayed Dr. Kim, was born in Orange County's largest city, Anaheim.

text: Carson Ward[edit]

text: Carson Ward, portrayed by Brian McNamara, is the husband of Meredith Ward, and the father of Eric, Brad, and Luke Ward. He graduated from the University of Southern California with a degree in history. He owns three auto dealerships. Carson and his family appeared happy, but in a sad twist, the family was not really "perfect". At one of his auto dealerships, Luke and Ryan discover Carson making out with another man and after realizing his son caught him, Carson decides to tell his wife who then files for divorce shortly after. Luke later admits to Ryan that his father "traveled" a lot and that he felt somewhat resentful of Carson for it when it turns out that the "traveling" was a cover for his affair. Months later, by season 2, Carson and Meredith's divorce has been finalized and Carson moves to Portland with Luke moving with him, but Brad and Eric staying behind in Newport with their mother. Carson later returns in the season 2 episode "The Distance", where Seth was staying at Luke and Carson's house in Portland.

text: Brad and Eric Ward[edit]

text: Brad and Eric Ward are Luke Ward's younger twin brothers. When they first appeared in season 1, they were around 12. After their parents divorced, Luke decides to live with their father and the twins are not seen; they presumably stayed behind in Newport with their mother. They later returned in season 4 and are classmates and friends with Kaitlin Cooper. Eric resembles Luke more than Brad and both are often seen flirting with female classmates.

text: Cindy[edit]

text: Cindy is the sister of Julie and is also the aunt of Marissa, Kaitlin Cooper.

text: D.J.[edit]

text: D.J. played by Nicholas Gonzalez is described by creator Josh Schwartz as "the yard guy who works at Caleb's mansion".[19] Later, however, it is revealed that Marissa Cooper has struck up a relationship with him after Ryan Atwood left Orange County. Marissa and DJ kept their trysts secret to prevent Marissa's mother Julie from finding out and firing D.J. When Ryan returns to Newport and asks Marissa if she was seeing anyone, Marissa lies to him and says she's single. However, Ryan discovers the truth when he finds Marissa and D.J. kissing. D.J. is angry with Marissa when he finds out about her lie, saying he felt like a back-up she only came to when Ryan was not around. Marissa apologizes and the two reconcile shortly afterward, with Marissa revealing their relationship to her mother by announcing that as he was her boyfriend, D.J. should appear with them in family portrait photographs to be taken with Caleb Nichol. As expected, this enrages Julie, who felt D.J. was socially beneath her daughter. Arranging a secret meeting with him, Julie gives D.J. a check for $5,000 to leave Marissa. D.J. does so, but first gives the check to Marissa, suggesting she goes on a spending spree. He then leaves her, saying he had no regrets about their relationship, but he feels Marissa was with him only to spite her mother.

text: Renee Wheeler[edit]

text: Renee Wheeler once had an affair with Caleb Nichol which led to her having a child, Lindsay Gardner. Caleb continues to pay her money and the DA misunderstand that, thinking that Caleb is bribing Renee for a building permit, for which Caleb is arrested ("The New Era"). Sandy figures out that the reason Caleb pays Renee is that she is the mother of his illegitimate child ("The SnO.C."). Caleb admits to having had an affair so he will be released from prison but the news angers his daughter, Kirsten Cohen ("The Chrismukkah That Almost Wasn't"). Renee later returns, asking Ryan Atwood to help her stop Caleb from adopting Lindsay as Caleb wants a paternity test and Renee isn't sure if Caleb really is Lindsay's father ("The Test"). The test results confirm Caleb's paternity but Lindsay ultimately decides that she doesn't want Caleb to adopt her because of how he treats her and she and her mother leave Newport for Chicago ("The Rainy Day Women").

text: Rebecca Bloom[edit]

text: Rebecca Bloom is an ex-girlfriend of Sandy Cohen, who is described as Sandy's "love of [his] life" by Kirsten Cohen. Twenty years ago, she was accused of burning down a lab and killing a man in the fire. Rebecca denies that and claims that she fled the site because she did not want to testify against her friends. Her father, Max, asks his former student Sandy to find Rebecca, as he is dying and wants to see his only daughter one last time before passing away. Rebecca shows up, and Max asks Sandy to clear her name; soon after this, he dies. Sandy continues to assist Rebecca, thus placing his marriage in jeopardy. Sandy and Rebecca finally realize that their love was a thing of the past, and Rebecca flees yet again.

text: Carter Buckley[edit]

text: Carter Buckley is introduced as a new editor of Newport Living. He has edited several magazines before, The Ugly American and GQ being two of them, and self-published Revolution. Carter is in a middle of divorce and becomes lugubrious. Kirsten Cohen puts an issue of Revolution into his mailbox in order to encourage him to restart his life. Carter accepts the job and spends a lot of time working with Kirsten who develops a crush on him. Carter's alcoholism helps develop Kirsten's, as they drink much during work. Carter leaves Orange County when offered a job in New York City. At the farewell dinner at the Cohens' house where Kirsten and Carter are alone, they share a kiss. Kirsten is apparently upset about his departure, and her drinking increases.

text: Lance Baldwin[edit]

text: Lance Baldwin is Julie Cooper's ex-boyfriend. Back in the 1980s, when she was in desperate need of money, she starred in a porn flick he directed, entitled "The Porn Identity". Although the film was never published, a desperate Lance suddenly shows up, and threatens Julie to pay $500,000 or else he would leak the film onto the internet. Julie asks her husband, Caleb Nichol, for help, but instead of paying Lance, Caleb sends two thugs to attack Lance. Furious, he sabotages the launch of Julie's new magazine, "Newport Living", by replacing the promotional video with archive footage from "The Porn Identity." A devastated Julie flees Orange County with Caleb Nichol and later returns after the controversy dies down. After Lance redeems himself, he and Julie reminisce over their past together, and share a kiss which is caught on camera. Caleb subsequently asks Julie for a divorce (and fires her from the newport group), and reveals to his wife that he has had people spy on her since before their marriage.

text: Jess Sathers[edit]

text: Jess Sathers was a student at Harbor who overdoses at Trey Atwood's 21st birthday party. She survives and begins a relationship with Trey that leads him to start using drugs. She then attempts to seduce Trey's brother, Ryan Atwood, in view of Marissa Cooper at Harbor, but Ryan rejects her advances. After botching an attempted drug deal which results in shootout at The Bait Shop, Jess decides to leave town with Trey but remains when he is shot by Marissa. In the third season, Jess asks Ryan to help her with boyfriend troubles, disrupting Ryan's attempts to start a relationship with Sadie.

text: Charlotte Morgan[edit]

text: Charlotte Morgan is a con-artist, posing as a recovering alcoholic. She met Kirsten in rehab and tried to get money from her. However, this failed and she moved on to Julie. The two planned to throw a fund-raiser, a ploy by Charlotte to steal all the donations, but she gets found out when Julie goes into her handbag at a restaurant and finds numerous credit cards in different names. Charlotte gets Julie in on the scam, however Julie does the right thing and asks people to write checks to the charity so Charlotte could not steal the money. With her plan foiled, she departed from Newport.

text: In July 2005 it was reported that Jeri Ryan was joining The O.C. in a seven-episode arc as "a mysterious woman Kirsten Cohen (Kelly Rowan) befriends in rehab".[20] Later on Josh Schwartz said that "We were told to add this Jeri Ryan character to the show that we had no idea what to do with. We were just told we had to add an adult female character. It went nowhere, and we had no plan for it, and it just didn't fit the show."[21] Rob Lineberger of DVD Verdict "thought Jeri Ryan made a compelling bad girl".[22] Derek Hanson said that Ryan's addition was meant to get the "14–24 demographic excited", but stated that Charlotte Morgan had "a terrible storyline, that just didn't sit quite right."[23]

text: Reed Carlson[edit]

text: Reed Carlson is the Vice President of the graphic novel company Bad Science. She was an assistant of Carter Buckley and he arranges a meeting after getting to know Seth Cohen and Zach Stevens who co-created Atomic County. She likes the comic so she helps them to publish. Seth deliberately misleads Summer Roberts that Reed is a man, infuriating Summer. Later, Reed asks Seth to bring Summer, the real Little Miss Vixen, to a party. Summer does not like the place and asks Seth to leave, but Reed stops Seth from leaving, making Summer even angrier. Reed then threatens to sue Zach when he wants to pull out. Reed offers Summer a chance to be the star of the comic to ensure that Summer will stop convincing Seth and Zach of giving up on it. Summer shows up at the launch party wearing costume, but the party ends with Seth and Zach literally fighting for Summer. Reed is outraged about the debacle so she just let one person to meet George Lucas, who is interested in Atomic County.

text: Jack Hess[edit]

text: Jack Hess who has a master's degree in education and who taught six years at boarding schools, is the new Dean of Discipline at Harbor High and is responsible for the measures to be taken after the gunshot incident. He wishes to punish Marissa Cooper but is only able to expel her. When Ryan Atwood punches him in the face, Jack uses that to have expelled Ryan as well. He then gives Seth Cohen two months detention when he and Summer Roberts steal a tiki hut, which was a prop in a school play, so Ryan and Marissa can have sex in the hut on the beach. He is also responsible for Summer losing the social chair to Taylor Townsend by tricking her to admit that she stole a theatrical set. At the Summer Dance, Summer sees Taylor and Jack sharing an intimate tryst and Sandy uses the information to blackmail Jack into leaving Harbor to save his career and get Ryan back into Harbor.

text: Dennis Childress[edit]

text: Dennis "Chili" Childress is Johnny Harper's best friend and one of the kids Marissa Cooper befriends at Newport Union. He introduces himself to Marissa as "Chili" and his similarities to Seth Cohen, earned him the short-lived nickname "Bizarro Seth" from Ryan Atwood. Chili is a good friend and aids Johnny, especially when he has to deal with Casey cheating on him and when he is injured by a car accident. Chili lies to Marissa about Johnny, telling her that he got back on the surfing team and will be leaving Newport Union to travel with them, as he and Johnny know that Johnny is the only reason Marissa is staying at Newport Union. Chili wants Johnny to confess to Marissa how he feels about her but when he does, Marissa tells him that she doesn't love him. After Johnny's death, Chili stops going by the name Chili and wants to be called Dennis instead, as Johnny never liked the nickname.

text: Heather[edit]

text: Heather attends Newport Union and disliked Marissa Cooper from the very beginning, harassing her and doing all she can to make Marissa's life as difficult as possible. She is seemingly highly jealous of Marissa assuming she still lives the posh life despite Marissa and Julie got nothing from Caleb's will. She helps Kevin Volchok to kidnap Marissa in order to get Ryan Atwood to fight Volchok. She reappears at a party at Volchok's place where she is given a spiked drink by Volchok's friends and is nearly raped by them before Marissa rescues her. In the third-season finale, Heather helps Volchok to leave Newport in a stolen car. She is in the car when Volchok drives into Ryan's car, leading Ryan to drive off a cliff which results in Marissa's death. In "The Cold Turkey" in Season 4, she appears briefly and apologizes to Ryan about the night of Marissa's death but claims to have had no control over Volchok's actions.

text: Casey[edit]

text: Casey attends Newport Union and dates Johnny Harper. She befriends Marissa Cooper when she enrolls at Union. She helps Marissa dodge the insults of Heather, the school bully, but when she notices that Johnny and Marissa are growing closer and closer, she feels jealous and suspicious, finally cheating on Johnny by making out with his rival Kevin Volchok. Johnny walks in on them and breaks up with her. She later explains to Marissa that she's not a bad person, and she could just see Johnny was falling in love with Marissa.

text: Matt Ramsey[edit]

text: Matt Ramsey is a 26-year-old associate of the company that will take over the Newport Group. He convinced Sandy Cohen to keep the company so that they can run it as co-partners and is then named Vice President and Director of Development. In the episode "The Disconnect", he takes Ryan Atwood as an intern due to Ryan's knowledge and experience in construction. Matt takes Ryan to a strip club and is fired by Sandy, but gets another chance when one of the dancers comes to Sandy and explains why he goes there. He doesn't have any trouble bribing to get green light for projects which are against Sandy's principles. Sandy tries to "do it his way" but has to give in to Matt's way as the latter has most of the board members on his side. Matt has a brief relationship with Maya, daughter of the head of the hospital's board, Henry Griffin, but breaks up with her when Sandy proposes a deal with Henry. Henry asks Sandy to fire Matt because of his relationship to his daughter. Matt warns Sandy about Henry who takes kickbacks from vendors and tries to sell the story to newspapers but stops doing so after being beaten up by goons Henry has hired. Matt asks Henry for compensation as he has evidence that incriminates Henry. The deal is stopped by Sandy who pays Matt for the evidence. Matt then leaves for Chicago.

text: Sadie Campbell[edit]

text: Sadie Campbell is Johnny Harper's cousin and comes to Orange County to help Johnny's mother Gwen after her son dies ("The Heavy Lifting"). Ryan Atwood befriends Sadie, helping her to decorate the house and get money from Johnny's father ("The Road Warrior"). After some trouble, Sadie and Ryan start dating as Marissa Cooper and Ryan have broken up once again after Johnny's death ("The Undertow"). The relationship is doomed however, as Ryan is soon afterwards accepted to Berkeley and Sadie doesn't want to be the reason Ryan doesn't live his college life as he should and breaks up. She then leaves Newport to restart her jewellery-making business ("The Day After Tomorrow").

text: It was reported that Nikki Reed would make her television debut in a four-episode arc,[24] which later became six. Reed stated that Sadie became "far from what I was originally pitched", suggesting that "glamming up the bohemian character" was to give the fans "someone who can give Mischa a run for her money."[25] It was also rumoured by Reed herself that Sadie would return for the fourth season.[26][27]

text: Henry Griffin[edit]

text: Henry Griffin is the Head of the Hospital Board. His daughter, Maya, dated Matt Ramsey briefly before breaking up, as Matt agrees Sandy Cohen's request to get Maya's help in giving a proposal to Henry. Henry asks Sandy to fire Matt for Maya which he does. Matt accuses Henry of taking kickbacks from ventures, and tries to sell the story to newspapers. In return, Henry orders three ruffians to vandalise Matt's apartment and beat him. After knowing what Henry did, Sandy threatens Henry to resign so he will "take [him] down". To stop Sandy, Henry bribes Sandy with a recommendation of a revitalising project. Later Matt asks Henry to pay him in exchange of evidence, and Henry brings a goon when they are ready to "make" the deal, but Sandy stops it. Sandy takes the evidence and pays Matt instead. Henry later is investigated by D.A. and banned from the board. Sandy finally gives up the hospital and supports D.A to charge Henry, by giving the documents D.A. needs.

text: Che Cook[edit]

text: Winchester "Che" Cook, is a friend of Summer Roberts who attends Brown University with her. He was the driving force behind Summer's left wing activism. When he and Summer break into a science lab and are interviewed by the Brown board, he blames all his illegal activities on Summer. As a result of Che's actions, Summer was suspended from Brown. Che later feels guilty and regretful for his actions and travels to Newport to ask her forgiveness. Later it's discovered he is actually extremely rich - his father owns a pharmaceutical company. In "The Chrismukk-huh?", he appears in an alternate universe when Ryan Atwood and Taylor Townsend are in a coma. In this universe, he took what would have been Ryan's spot for admission at Harbor High School, and was engaged to Summer Roberts, and having an affair with Julie Cooper and any woman he could get his hands on. In this universe, he wasn't an activist, as he is in real life. Later, in an attempt to repay Summer for her forgiveness for his misdeeds, Che tries to help Seth feel harmony with himself and takes him to the woods to connect with his spirit animal. During this trip, Che is convinced by a dream that Seth is his soul mate. Che attempts to test this idea in "The Groundhog Day" with mixed results eventually winding up with the pair in prison. His last name, Cook, is revealed as the officer announces his release. However, Che realises that Seth was not his soul mate, it was actually the environmentalist girl who is placed in the cell next to them. Together, Che and his soul mate leave Newport.

text: Gordon Bullit[edit]

text: Gordon Bullit, who refers to himself as "The Bullit", is a colorful oil merchant from Texas. Although he has been involved in bad deals, he is extremely wealthy. In prison, he met Frank Atwood, who he later hired to be in charge of his finances. He soon after developed a crush on Julie Cooper, and after some intimate e-mails he thought he was sharing with Julie (which was later revealed to be from Kaitlin Cooper pretending to be her mother) he proposed to Julie. She rejects him, as she is already in a relationship with Frank Atwood. She initially breaks up with Frank and dates Bullit when Kaitlin reveals how much she would like Bullit to be her stepfather, but realizes that Frank is the one she wants to be with and reunites with him on Valentine's Day. In the series finale, set six months after the earthquake, Julie is engaged to Bullit after Frank panicked and left her when he discovered she was pregnant. Ultimately, when she has to choose between Frank and Bullit Julie decides to stay single. Despite Julie's decision to not marry Bullit after all, he and the family remain good friends.

text: Bullit has 12 sons, whom he jokingly introduced to Kaitlin Cooper as "A Buffet of Bullits", all of which are named after cities in Texas where he has oil refinery – Austin, Dallas, Houston, Lubbock, Odessa, El Paso, Amarillo, Texarkana, San Antonio and Corpus Christi – with the exception of Hanoi (named after Vietnam's capital), where he also has a refinery, and Spencer. Hanoi is Asian and presumably adopted. Amarillo is a "doctor for women's private parts" (i.e. gynecologist).

text: Spencer Bullit[edit]

text: Spencer Bullit is Kaitlin Cooper's tennis instructor and Gordon Bullit's son. Kaitlin develops a crush on Spencer, who refuses to get involved with her as she is jailbait. Instead, he has a brief affair with Julie Cooper, which ends when Kaitlin tricks him into interrupting Julie on a date with his father. Later, he joins Julie's and Kirsten Cohen's agency, New Match, and uses their match-making to work as a gigolo. He has 11 brothers, most named after Texan cities.

text: Frank Atwood[edit]

text: Francis "Frank" Atwood initially appears as a business associate of Gordon Bullit, calling himself Frank Perry. He starts working at Kirsten's and Julie's matchmaking agency NewMatch. Frank had met Bullit in jail and Bullit offered him a position in his business. Later, Frank reveals to Julie that he had an ulterior motive for choosing Newport and that he was Ryan's biological father. Meanwhile, Sandy discovers that Frank was in prison for armed robbery. He wants to reunite with Ryan, but Ryan tells Sandy to pass on the message that he does not want to see him. According to Kirsten, Frank was an abusive alcoholic, as shown by Ryan visibly tensing up when hearing about Frank wanting to reunite with him. Frank tells Kirsten that he was dying of cancer and Kirsten invites him over to their home for dinner. However, Sandy, whose experience as a public defender led him to be suspicious of Frank's story, finds out from a physician friend in the prison system that Frank was lying and punches him, sparking a fight, which Ryan quickly breaks up. Ryan asks Frank to leave, saying that he wasn't ready to accept him into his life. In subsequent episodes, Ryan and Frank make amends and appear to be on speaking terms but Ryan has made it clear that even though he addresses Frank as "dad", he considers Sandy to be his father figure.

text: Later in Season 4, Frank begins a relationship with Julie Cooper which is broken off when she decides to date Bullit for her daughter's sake because she and Gordon develop a close relationship. She later decides that Frank is the one she wants to be with and they begin dating again. Their son Cooper Atwood was born a few months after Kirsten and Sandy's daughter.

text: In season 1, it was revealed that Frank (he was still unnamed and known simply as "Ryan's father" at that time) and Dawn and their sons Trey and Ryan lived in Fresno, California where Frank worked as a mechanic. Like his ex-wife, he had alcohol problems and was arrested multiple times for alcohol-related offenses (DUI and public intoxication). After he was imprisoned for armed robbery, Dawn and the boys moved south to Chino, California, where the series begins. Ryan rarely mentioned him during the first three seasons, except through vague remarks.

text: Special cameo appearance[edit]

text:
Robert Schwartzman ("The Third Wheel")
Rooney ("The Third Wheel")
The Subways ("The Anger Management")
Modest Mouse ("The Family Ties")
The Thrills ("The Ex-Factor")
Rachael Yamagata ("The Second Chance")
Death Cab for Cutie ("The O.C. Confidential")
T.I. ("The Return of the Nana")
George Lucas ("The O.Sea")
Jem Griffiths ("The Ties That Bind")
Gisele Bündchen ("The Heavy Lifting")
Lisa Tucker ("The Party Favor")


document_title: The Handmaid's Tale

question_text: what is an i in the handmaid's tale

question_tokens: what is an i in the handmaid 's tale

root

text: The Handmaid's Tale

text: Plot summary[edit]

text: The Handmaid's Tale is set in the Republic of Gilead, a theonomic military dictatorship formed within the borders of what was formerly the United States of America.[5]

tag: p

text: Beginning with a staged attack that kills the President and most of Congress, a fundamentalist Christian Reconstructionist movement calling itself the "Sons of Jacob" launches a revolution and suspends the United States Constitution under the pretext of restoring order.[7] They quickly remove women's rights, largely attributed to financial records being stored electronically and labelled by sex. The new regime, the Republic of Gilead, moves quickly to consolidate its power, including overtaking all pre-existing religious groups, including Christianity, and reorganize society along a new militarized, hierarchical model of Old Testament-inspired social and religious fanaticism among its newly created social classes. In this society, human rights are severely limited and women's rights are strictly curtailed. For example, women are forbidden to read, and anyone caught in homosexual acts would be hanged for "Gender Treachery".

text: The story is told in the first person by a woman called Offred. The character is one of a class of women with healthy reproductive systems, in an era of declining birth rates owed to increasing infertility. These women are forcibly assigned to produce children for the ruling class and are known as "handmaids," based on the biblical story of Rachel and her handmaid Bilhah. Offred describes her life during her third assignment as a handmaid, in this case to Fred (referred to as "The Commander"). Interspersed with her narratives of her present-day experiences are flashback discussions of her life from before and during the beginning of the revolution, when she finds she has lost all autonomy to her husband, their failed attempt to escape to Canada, and finally her indoctrination into life as a handmaid by government-trained women called "Aunts".

text: Offred describes the structure of Gilead's society, including the different classes of women and their lives within the new theonomy. The women are physically segregated by colour of clothing — blue, red, green, striped and white - to signify social class and assigned position, ranked highest to lowest. The Commanders' wives are dressed in blue, handmaids in red, Marthas (cooks and maids) in green. Striped clothing is for all other women (called "Econowives") who essentially do everything in the domestic sphere. Young, unmarried girls are dressed in white.

text: The Commander is a high-ranking official in Gilead. Although his contact with Offred is supposed to be limited to "the ceremony," a ritual of sexual intercourse intended to result in conception and at which his wife is present, he begins an illegal relationship with Offred. Secret meetings occur in his study, which the Commander's Wife is not permitted to enter. The room is filled with books and is considered a private place for the man of the house. During these meetings, he tries to earn her trust by talking and playing board games together, such as Scrabble. He also lets her read, another offence, as women are not permitted to read and write. The Commander offers her contraband products, such as old (1970s) fashion magazines and cosmetics. Finally, he gives her lingerie and takes her to a government-run brothel called Jezebel's. This brothel is meant to add variety to men's sex lives which, as claimed by the Commander, is necessary. At Jezebel's, Offred encounters her friend, Moira, who had escaped from the handmaid training center, and learns how she came to be there. Moira explains that defiant women who could not adjust to the new society might be offered work at Jezebel's rather than be forced to work in the Colonies, cleaning up radioactive waste. The women in the brothels are allowed alcohol and drugs, a freedom Offred notes. Though they are allowed to choose their patrons, they are discouraged from refusing a man's advances.

text: The Commander's wife, Serena Joy, is a minor antagonist. Offred remembers her as a Christian media personality who supported women's domesticity and subordinate role well before Gilead was established. Serena is clearly bored and unhappy—that she was taken at her word, Offred assumes—and hates sharing her husband with a handmaid. Ironically, though, Serena also has secret interactions with Offred, arranging for her to sleep with Nick, the Commander's driver, in an effort to get Offred pregnant. In return, Serena Joy gives her news of her daughter and a recent photo. Offred has not seen her child since she and her family were captured trying to escape Gilead.

text: After Offred's initial meeting with Nick, they begin to meet more frequently. Offred discovers she enjoys sex with him, despite her indoctrination and her memories of her husband. She shares potentially dangerous information about her past with him. Through her shopping partner, a woman called Ofglen, Offred learns of the Mayday resistance, an underground network working to overthrow the Republic of Gilead. Shortly after Ofglen's disappearance (later revealed as a suicide), the Commander's wife finds evidence of the relationship between Offred and the Commander. Offred contemplates suicide.

text: As the novel concludes, Offred tells Nick that she thinks she is pregnant. Shortly afterwards, she is taken away by the secret police, the Eyes of God, known informally as "the Eyes". Before she is put in the large black van, Nick tells her that the men are part of the Mayday resistance and to trust him. Offred does not know if he is a member of Mayday or an Eye posing as one, and is unsure if leaving will result in her escape or her capture. She enters the van with her future uncertain.

text: The novel concludes with a metafictional epilogue that explains that the events of the novel occurred shortly after the beginning of what is called "the Gilead Period." The epilogue is "a partial transcript of the proceedings of the Twelfth Symposium on Gileadean Studies" written in 2195 and hosted by Professor Maryann Crescent Moon. According to the symposium's "keynote speaker" Professor James Darcy Pieixoto, he and his colleague Professor Knotly Wade discovered Offred's story recorded onto cassette tapes. They transcribed the tapes, calling them collectively "the handmaid's tale." Through the tone and actions of the professionals in this final section of the book, the world of academia is highlighted and critiqued, and Pieixoto discusses his team's search for the characters named in the Tale, and the impossibility of proving the tapes' authenticity.[8]

text: However, the existence of tapes does imply that Offred escaped and survived for at least a time and thus that the Eyes that collected her were, in fact, part of Mayday. The epilogue also suggests that, following the collapse of the theonomic Republic of Gilead, a more equal society — though not the United States that had previously existed — re-emerged, with a restoration of full rights for women and freedom of religion.

text: Characters[edit]

text: Offred[edit]

text: Offred is the protagonist and narrator. She was labeled a "wanton woman" when Gilead was established because she had married a man who was divorced. All divorces were nullified by the new government, meaning her husband was now considered still married to his first wife, making Offred an adulteress. In trying to escape Gilead, she was separated from her husband and daughter. She is part of the first generation of Gilead's women, those who remember pre-Gilead times. Proved fertile, she is considered an important commodity and has been placed as a handmaid in the home of the Commander Fred and his wife Serena Joy, to bear a child for them (Serena Joy is believed to be infertile).[9]

text: Offred is a slave name that describes her function: she is "of Fred", i.e. she belongs to Fred, her commander, and is considered a concubine. In the novel, Offred says that she is not a concubine, but a tool; a "two legged womb". The Handmaids' names say nothing about who the women really are (Offred Of Fred, Ofglen Of Glen); their only identity is as the Commander's property. "Offred" is also a pun on the word "offered", as in "offered as a sacrifice," as well as a play on the words "off-red", referencing the color that handmaids wear and the character's frustrations with her assigned position.[6]

text: The women in training to be handmaids whisper names across their beds at night. The names are "Alma. Janine. Dolores. Moira. June", and all are later accounted for except June. In addition, one of the Aunts tells the handmaids-in-training to stop "mooning and June-ing".[10] From this and other references, some readers have inferred that her birth name could be "June."[11] Miner suggests that "June" is a pseudonym. As "Mayday" is the name of the Gilead resistance, June could be an invention by the protagonist. The Nunavit conference covered in the epilogue takes place in June.[12] When the Hulu TV series chose to state outright that Offred's real name is June, Atwood wrote that it was not her original intention to imply that Offred's real name is June "but it fits, so readers are welcome to it if they wish."[6]

text: The Commander[edit]

text: The Commander says that he is a sort of scientist and was previously involved in something similar to market research, pre-Gilead. Later, it is hypothesized, but not confirmed, that he might have been one of the architects of the Republic and its laws. Presumably, his first name is "Fred", though that, too, may be a pseudonym.

text: He engages in forbidden intellectual pursuits with Offred, such as playing Scrabble, and introduces her to a secret club that serves as a brothel for high-ranking officers. Offred learns that the Commander carried on a similar relationship with his previous handmaid and that she killed herself when his wife found out. In the epilogue the academics speculate that one of two figures, both instrumental in the establishment of Gilead, may have been Fred, based on his first name. It is strongly suggested that the Commander was a man named Frederick R. Waterford who was killed in a purge shortly after Offred was taken away, charged with harboring an enemy agent.

text: Serena Joy[edit]

text: Serena Joy is a former televangelist and the Commander's wife in the fundamentalist theonomy. The state took away her power and public recognition, and tries to hide her past as a television figure. Offred identifies her master's wife by recalling seeing her on TV when she was a little girl early on Saturday mornings while waiting for the cartoons to air. Believed to be sterile (although the suggestion is made that the Commander is sterile, Gileadean laws attribute sterility only to women), she is forced to accept that he has use of a handmaid. She resents having to take part in the monthly fertility ritual. She strikes a deal with Offred to arrange for her to have sex with Nick in order to become pregnant. According to Professor Pieixoto in the epilogue, "Serena Joy" or "Pam" are pseudonyms; the character's real name is implied to be Thelma.

text: Ofglen[edit]

text: Ofglen is a neighbour of Offred's and a fellow Handmaid. She is partnered with Offred to do the daily shopping. Handmaids are never alone and are expected to police each other's behaviour. Ofglen is a member of the Mayday resistance. In contrast to Offred, she is daring. She knocks out a Mayday spy who is to be tortured and killed in order to save him the pain of a violent death. Offred is told that when Ofglen vanishes, it is because she has committed suicide before the government can take her into custody due to her membership in the resistance, possibly to avoid giving away any information.

text: A new handmaid, also called Ofglen, takes Ofglen's place, and is assigned as Offred's shopping partner. She threatens Offred against any thought of resistance. She breaks protocol by telling her what happened to the first Ofglen.

text: Nick[edit]

text: Nick is the Commander's chauffeur, who lives above the garage. By Serena Joy's arrangement, he and Offred start a sexual relationship to increase her chance of getting pregnant. If she were unable to bear the Commander a child, she would be declared sterile and shipped to the ecological wastelands of the Colonies. Offred begins to develop feelings for him. Nick is an ambiguous character, and Offred does not know if he is a party loyalist or part of the resistance, though he identifies himself as the former. The epilogue suggests that he really was part of the resistance, and aided Offred in escaping the Commander's house.

text: Moira[edit]

text: Moira has been a close friend of Offred's since college. A lesbian, she has resisted the homophobia of Gilead society. Moira is taken to be a Handmaid soon after Offred. She escapes by stealing an Aunt's pass and clothes, but Offred later finds her working as a prostitute in a party-run brothel. She was caught and chose the brothel rather than be sent to the Colonies.

text: Luke[edit]

text: Luke was Offred's husband prior to the formation of Gilead. He had divorced his first wife to marry her. Under Gilead, all divorces were retroactively nullified, resulting in Offred being considered an adulteress and their daughter a bastard. Offred was forced to become a Handmaid and her daughter was given to a loyalist family. Since their attempt to escape to Canada, Offred has heard nothing of Luke.

text: Professor Pieixoto[edit]

text: Pieixoto is the "co-discoverer [with Professor Knotly Wade] of Offred's tapes". In his presentation at an academic conference, he talks about "the 'Problems of Authentication in Reference to The Handmaid's Tale'".[9]

text: Setting[edit]

text: The novel is set in an indeterminate future, speculated to be around the year 2005,[13] with a fundamentalist theonomy ruling the territory of what had been the United States but is now the Republic of Gilead. Individuals are segregated by categories and dressed according to their social functions. The complex sumptuary laws (dress codes) play a key role in imposing social control within the new society and serve to distinguish people by sex, occupation, and caste.

text: The action takes place in what once was the Harvard Square neighbourhood of Cambridge, Massachusetts;[14][15] Atwood studied at Radcliffe College, located in this area.

text: Politics[edit]

text: In Gilead, the bodies of fertile women are politicized and controlled. The North American population is falling as more men and women become infertile (though in Gilead, legally, it is only women who can be the cause of infertility). Gilead's treatment of women is based upon a narrow, fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible, meaning that women are the property of and subordinate to their husband, father, or head of household. They are not allowed to do anything that would grant them any power independent of this system. They are not allowed to vote, hold a job, read, possess money, or own anything, among many other restrictions.

text: A particular quote from The Handmaid's Tale sums this up: "The Republic of Gilead, said Aunt Lydia, knows no bounds. Gilead is within you" (HT 5.2). This describes that there is no way around the societal bounds of women in this new state of government. Handmaids, being not allowed to wed, are given two-year assignments with a commander, and lose their own name: they are called "Of [their Commander's first name]", such as the novel's protagonist, known only as Offred. When a handmaid is reassigned, her name changes with her. Their original identities before the revolution are suppressed, although while being reeducated as handmaids, they surreptitiously share their names with each other.

text: In this book, the government appears to be strong though "no one in Gilead seems to be a true believer in its revolution" (Beauchamp). The Commanders, portrayed via Commander Fred, do not agree with their own doctrines. The commander takes Offred at one point to a brothel in order to have sex with her in an informal setting apart from the Ceremony. The wives, portrayed via Serena Joy, former television evangelist, disobey the rules set forth by their commander husbands. Serena smokes black market cigarettes and expresses the forbidden idea that men may be infertile, and schemes to get Offred impregnated by her chauffeur.

text: Religion[edit]

text: Bruce Miller, the executive producer of The Handmaid's Tale television serial, declared with regard to Atwood's book, as well as his series, that Gilead is "a society that’s based kind of in a perverse misreading of Old Testament laws and codes".[16] The author explains that Gilead tries to embody the "utopian idealism" present in 20th-century régimes, such as Cambodia and Romania, as well as earlier New England Puritanism.[17] Both Atwood and Miller stated that the people running Gilead are "not genuinely Christian".[18][16] The group running Gilead, according to Atwood, is "not really interested in religion; they're interested in power."[19] In fact, in her prayers to God, Offred, reflecting on Gilead, prays “I don't believe for an instant that what's going on out there is what You meant…. I suppose I should say I forgive whoever did this, and whatever they’re doing now. I’ll try, but it isn’t easy.”[20] Margaret Atwood, writing on this, says that "Offred herself has a private version of the Lord's Prayer and refuses to believe that this regime has been mandated by a just and merciful God."[21]

text: Christian churches that do not support the actions of the Sons of Jacob are systematically demolished, and the people living in Gilead are never seen attending church.[16] Christian denominations, including Quakers, Baptists and Roman Catholics, are specifically named as enemies of the Sons of Jacob.[19][16] Nuns who refuse conversion are considered "Unwomen" and banished to the Colonies, owing to their reluctance to marry and refusal (or inability) to bear children. Priests unwilling to convert are executed and hanged from the Wall. Atwood pits Quaker Christians against the régime by having them help the oppressed, something she feels they would do in reality: "The Quakers have gone underground, and are running an escape route to Canada, as—I suspect—they would."[21]

text: Jews are named an exception and classified Sons of Jacob. Offred observes that Jews refusing to convert are allowed to emigrate to Israel, and most choose to leave. However, in the Epilogue, Professor Pieixoto reveals that many of the emigrating Jews ended up being dumped into the sea while on the ships ostensibly tasked with transporting them to Israel, due to privatization of the "repatriation program" and capitalists' effort to maximize profits. Offred mentions that many Jews who chose to stay were caught secretly practicing Judaism and executed.

text: Caste and class[edit]

text: African Americans, the main non-white ethnic group in this society, are called the Children of Ham. A state TV broadcast mentions they have been relocated en masse to "National Homelands" in the Midwest, which are suggestive of the Apartheid-era homelands set up by South Africa.

text: Gender and occupation[edit]

text: The sexes are strictly divided. Gilead's society values reproduction by white women most highly. Women are categorised "hierarchically according to class status and reproductive capacity" as well as "metonymically colour-coded according to their function and their labour" (Kauffman 232). The Commander expresses the prevailing opinion that women are considered intellectually and emotionally inferior to men.

text: Women are segregated by clothing, as are men. With rare exception, men wear military or paramilitary uniforms. All classes of men and women are defined by the colors they wear (as in Aldous Huxley's dystopian Brave New World), drawing on colour symbolism and psychology. All lower-status individuals are regulated by this dress code. All "non-persons" are banished to the "Colonies". Sterile, unmarried women are considered to be non-persons. Both men and women sent there wear grey dresses.

text: Legitimate women[edit]

text: The division of labour among the women generates some resentment. Marthas, Wives and Econowives perceive Handmaids as promiscuous and are taught to scorn them. Offred mourns that the women of the various groups have lost their ability to empathize with each other. They are divided in their oppression.

text: Illegitimate women[edit]

text: Men[edit]

text: Men are classified into four main categories:

text: Men who engage in homosexuality or related acts are declared "Gender Traitors"; they are either hanged or sent to the "colonies" to die a slow death.

text: Babies[edit]

text: In this society, birth defects have become increasingly common.

text: There are two main categories of human children:

text: The Ceremony[edit]

text: "The Ceremony" is a non-marital sexual act sanctioned for reproduction. The ritual requires the Handmaid to lie on her back between the legs of the Wife during the sex act as if they were one person. The Wife has to invite the Handmaid to share her power this way; many Wives consider this both humiliating and offensive. Offred describes the ceremony:

text: My red skirt is hitched up to my waist, though no higher. Below it the Commander is fucking. What he is fucking is the lower part of my body. I do not say making love, because this is not what he's doing. Copulating too would be inaccurate, because it would imply two people and only one is involved. Nor does rape cover it: nothing is going on here that I haven't signed up for.[22]

text: Language[edit]

text: In the novel's fictional fundamentalist society, sterile is an "outlawed" word.[23] In this society, there is no such thing as a sterile man anymore. In this culture, women are either fruitful or barren, the latter of which are declared to be "unwomen" and are sent to the colonies with the rest of the "unwomen" to do life-threatening work until their death, which is, on average, three years.

text: Atwood emphasises how changes in context affect behaviours and attitudes by repeating the phrase "Context is all" throughout the novel, establishing this precept as a motif.[24] Playing the game of Scrabble with her Commander illustrates the key significance of changes in "context"; once "the game of old men and women", the game became forbidden for women to play and therefore "desirable".[25] Through living in a morally rigid society, Offred has come to perceive the world differently from earlier. Offred expresses amazement at how "It has taken so little time to change our minds about things".[26] Wearing revealing clothes and makeup had been part of her former life, but when she sees Japanese tourists dressed that way, she now feels the women are inappropriately dressed.[26]

text: Offred can read but not translate the phrase "nolite te bastardes carborundorum" carved into the closet wall of her small bedroom; this mock-Latin aphorism signifies "Don't let the bastards grind you down".[27] The significance of this phrase is intensified by the challenges the book has faced, creating a "Mise en abyme" as both the protagonist and the reader decipher subversive texts.

text: Genre classification[edit]

text: In interviews and essays Atwood has discussed generic classification of The Handmaid's Tale as "science fiction" or "speculative fiction", observing:

text: I like to make a distinction between science fiction proper and speculative fiction. For me, the science fiction label belongs on books with things in them that we can't yet do, such as going through a wormhole in space to another universe; and speculative fiction means a work that employs the means already to hand, such as DNA identification and credit cards, and that takes place on Planet Earth. But the terms are fluid.[3]

text: Hugo-winning science fiction critic David Langford observed in a column: "The Handmaid's Tale won the very first Arthur C. Clarke Award in 1987. She's been trying to live this down ever since." He says:

text: Atwood prefers to say that she writes speculative fiction—a term coined by SF author Robert A. Heinlein. As she told the Guardian, "Science fiction has monsters and spaceships; speculative fiction could really happen." She used a subtly different phrasing for New Scientist, "Oryx and Crake is not science fiction. It is fact within fiction. Science fiction is when you have rockets and chemicals." So it was very cruel of New Scientist to describe this interview in the contents list as: "Margaret Atwood explains why science is crucial to her science fiction." ... Play it again, Ms Atwood—this time for the Book-of-the-Month Club: "Oryx and Crake is a speculative fiction, not a science fiction proper. It contains no intergalactic space travel, no teleportation, no Martians." On BBC1 Breakfast News the distinguished author explained that science fiction, as opposed to what she writes, is characterized by "talking squids in outer space".[4]

text: In distinguishing between these genre labels science fiction and speculative fiction, Atwood acknowledges that others may use the terms interchangeably. But she notes her interest in this type of work to explore themes in ways that "realistic fiction" cannot do.[3]

text: Historical context[edit]

text: Fitting with her claims that The Handmaid's Tale is a work of speculative fiction, not science fiction, Atwood's novel offers a satirical view of various social, political, and religious trends of the 1980s United States. Further, Atwood questions what would happen if these trends, and especially "casually held attitudes about women" were taken to their logical end.[28] Atwood continues to argue that all of the scenarios offered in The Handmaid's Tale have actually occurred in real life—in an interview she gave regarding Oryx and Crake, Atwood maintains that "As with The Handmaid's Tale, I didn't put in anything that we haven't already done, we're not already doing, we're seriously trying to do, coupled with trends that are already in progress... So all of those things are real, and therefore the amount of pure invention is close to nil."[29] Atwood was also known to carry around newspaper clippings to her various interviews to support her fiction's basis in reality.[30] Atwood has explained that The Handmaid's Tale is a response to those who claim the oppressive, totalitarian, and religious governments that have taken hold in other countries throughout the years "can't happen here"—but in this work, she has tried to show how such a takeover might play out.[31]

text: Atwood's inspiration for the Republic of Gilead came from her time studying early American Puritans while at Harvard, which she attended on a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship.[28] Atwood argues that the modern view of the Puritans—that they came to America to flee religious persecution in England and set up a religiously tolerant society—is misleading, and that instead, these Puritan leaders wanted to establish a monolithic theocracy where religious dissent would not be accepted.[28] Atwood also had a personal connection to the Puritans, and she dedicates the novel to her own ancestor Mary Webster, who was accused of witchcraft in Puritan New England but survived her hanging.[32] Due to the totalitarian nature of Gileadan society, Atwood, in creating the setting, drew from the "utopian idealism" present in 20th century régimes, such as Cambodia and Romania, as well as earlier New England Puritanism.[17] Atwood has argued that a coup, such as the one depicted in The Handmaid's Tale, would misuse religion in order to achieve its own ends:[33]

text: ... if you wanted to seize power in the US, abolish liberal democracy and set up a dictatorship, how would you go about it? What would be your cover story? It would not resemble any form of communism or socialism: those would be too unpopular... Nations never build apparently radical forms of government on foundations that aren't there already. Thus China replaced a state bureaucracy with a similar state bureaucracy under a different name, the USSR replaced the dreaded imperial secret police with an even more dreaded secret police, and so forth. The deep foundation of the US – so went my thinking – was not the comparatively recent 18th-century Enlightenment structures of the republic, with their talk of equality and their separation of church and state, but the heavy-handed theocracy of 17th-century Puritan New England, with its marked bias against women, which would need only the opportunity of a period of social chaos to reassert itself. Like any theocracy, this one would select a few passages from the Bible to justify its actions, and it would lean heavily towards the Old Testament, not towards the New.[17]

text: Atwood, with respect to those leading Gilead, further stated:[19]

text: I don't consider these people to be Christians because they do not have at the core of their behavior and ideologies what I, in my feeble Canadian way, would consider to be the core of Christianity … and that would be not only love your neighbors but love your enemies. That would also be 'I was sick and you visited me not' and such and such …And that would include also concern for the environment, because you can't love your neighbor or even your enemy, unless you love your neighbor's oxygen, food, and water. You can't love your neighbor or your enemy if you're presuming policies that are going to cause those people to die. … Of course faith can be a force for good and often has been. So faith is a force for good particularly when people are feeling beleaguered and in need of hope. So you can have bad iterations and you can also have the iteration in which people have got too much power and then start abusing it. But that is human behavior, so you can't lay it down to religion. You can find the same in any power situation, such as politics or ideologies that purport to be atheist. Need I mention the former Soviet Union? So it is not a question of religion making people behave badly. It is a question of human beings getting power and then wanting more of it.[19]

text: In the same vein, Atwood also declared that "In the real world today, some religious groups are leading movements for the protection of vulnerable groups, including women."[21] Atwood also draws connections between the ways in which Gilead's leaders maintain their power and other examples of actual totalitarian governments. In her interviews, Atwood offers up Afghanistan as examples of religious theocracies forcing women out of the public sphere and into their homes, as in Gilead.[30][28] The "state-sanctioned murder of dissidents" was inspired by the Philippines, and the last General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party Nicolae Ceausescu's obsession with increasing the birth rate led to the strict policing of pregnant women and the outlawing of birth control and abortion.[30] However, Atwood clearly explains that many of these deplorable acts were not just present in other cultures and countries, "but within Western society, and within the 'Christian' tradition itself".[17]

text: The Republic of Gilead struggles with infertility, making Offred's services as a Handmaid vital to producing children and thus reproducing the society. Handmaids themselves are "untouchable", but their ability to signify status is equated to that of slaves or servants throughout history.[17] Atwood connects their concerns with infertility to real-life problems our world faces, such as radiation, chemical pollution, and venereal disease (HIV/AIDS is specifically mentioned in the "Historical Notes" section at the end of the novel, which was a relatively new disease at the time of Atwood's writing whose long-term impact was likely still unknown). Atwood's strong stance on environmental issues and their negative consequences for our society has presented itself in other works such as her MaddAddam trilogy, and refers back to her growing up with biologists and her own scientific curiosity.[34]

text: Critical reception[edit]

text: The Handmaid's Tale was well received by critics, helping to cement Atwood's status as a prominent writer of the 20th century. Not only was the book deemed well-written and compelling, but Atwood's work was notable for sparking intense debates both in and out of academia.[35] Atwood maintains that the Republic of Gilead is only an extrapolation of trends already seen in the United States at the time of her writing, a view supported by other scholars studying The Handmaid's Tale.[36] Indeed, many have placed The Handmaid's Tale in the same category of dystopian fiction as Nineteen Eighty-Four and Brave New World,[31] with the added feature of confronting patriarchy, a categorization that Atwood has accepted and reiterated in many articles and interviews.[37]

text: Even today, many reviewers hold that Atwood's novel remains as foreboding and powerful as ever, largely because of its basis in historical fact.[38][39] Yet when her book was first published in 1985, not all reviewers were convinced of the "cautionary tale" Atwood presented. For example, Mary McCarthy's New York Times review argued that The Handmaid's Tale lacked the "surprised recognition" necessary for readers to see "our present selves in a distorting mirror, of what we may be turning into if current trends are allowed to continue".[40]

text: In the aftermath of the television series' debut in 2017, there was much debate on whether parallels could be drawn between the series (and by extension, this book) and American society following Donald Trump's and Mike Pence's election as President of the United States and Vice President of the United States, respectively.[41][42]

text: Feminist reading[edit]

text: Much of the discussion about The Handmaid's Tale has centered on its categorization as feminist literature. Atwood does not see the Republic of Gilead as a purely feminist dystopia, as not all men have greater rights than women.[17] Instead, this society presents a typical dictatorship: "shaped like a pyramid, with the powerful of both sexes at the apex, the men generally outranking the women at the same level; then descending levels of power and status with men and women in each, all the way down to the bottom, where the unmarried men must serve in the ranks before being awarded an Econowife".[17] Additionally, Atwood has argued that while some of the observations that informed the content of The Handmaid's Tale may be feminist, her novel is not meant to say "one thing to one person" or serve as a political message—instead, The Handmaid's Tale is "a study of power, and how it operates and how it deforms or shapes the people who are living within that kind of regime".[31][37]

text: Some scholars have offered such a feminist interpretation, however, connecting Atwood's use of religious fundamentalism in the pages of The Handmaid's Tale to a condemnation of their presence in current American society.[43][44] Yet others have argued that The Handmaid's Tale critiques typical notions of feminism, as Atwood's novel appears to subvert the traditional "women helping women" ideals of the movement and turn toward the possibility of "the matriarchal network ... and a new form of misogyny: women's hatred of women".[45]

text: Race[edit]

text: Other critics have characterized The Handmaid's Tale as "White Feminism" noting that Atwood does away with black people in a few lines by relocating the "Children of Ham" while borrowing heavily from the African-American experience and applying it to white women.[46] Other critics have noted the parallels with apartheid and that it misrepresents how black people resist in times of crisis. The writer Mikki Kendall said about the book,

text: It requires me to believe that not only are my people gone, but often that they vanished quietly without any real resistance. As if. Like...Black people did not survive slavery, Jim Crow & the War on Drugs to be taken out by a handful of white boys with guns.[47][48]

text: Awards[edit]

text:
1985 – Governor General's Award for English language fiction (winner)
1986 – Booker Prize (nominated)
1986 – Nebula Award (nominated)
1987 – Arthur C. Clarke Award (winner)[a]
1987 – Prometheus Award (nominated)[b]

tag: ul

text: Academic reception[edit]

text: Atwood's novels, and especially her works of speculative fiction The Handmaid's Tale and Oryx and Crake, are frequently offered as examples for the final, open-ended question on the North American Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition exam each year.[49] As such, her books are often assigned in high-school classrooms to students taking this Advanced Placement course, despite the mature themes the work presents. Atwood herself has expressed surprise that her books are being assigned to high-school audiences, largely due to her own censored education in the 1950s, but she has assured readers that this increased attention from high-school students has not altered the material she has chosen to write about since.[50]

text: Many people have expressed discontent at The Handmaid's Tale's presence in the classroom, as it has been frequently challenged or banned over the last 30 years. Some of these challenges have come from parents concerned about the explicit sexuality and other adult themes represented in the book. Others have argued that The Handmaid's Tale depicts a negative view of religion, a view supported by several academics who propose that Atwood's work satirizes contemporary religious fundamentalists in the United States, offering a feminist critique of the trends this movement to the Right represents.[43][44]

text: The American Library Association (ALA) lists The Handmaid's Tale as number 37 on the "100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000".[51] Atwood participated in discussing The Handmaid's Tale as the subject of an ALA discussion series titled "One Book, One Conference".[52]

text: Some complaints have included:

text:
1990: Challenged at Rancho Cotate High School, Rohnert Park, California, as too explicit for students.
1992: Challenged in schools in Waterloo, Iowa, reportedly because of profanity, lurid passages about sex, and statements defamatory to minorities, God, women, and the disabled.
1993: Removed because of profanity and sex from the Chicopee, Massachusetts, high-school English class reading list.
1998: Challenged for use in Richland, Washington, high-school English classes, along with six other titles determined to be "poor quality literature and [that] stress suicide, illicit sex, violence, and hopelessness".
1999: Challenged because of graphic sex, but retained on the advanced placement English list, at George D. Chamberlain High School in Tampa, Florida.
2000: Downgraded from "required" to "optional" on the summer reading list for eleventh graders in the Upper Moreland School District near Philadelphia due to "age-inappropriate" subject matter.
2001: Challenged, but retained, in the Dripping Springs, Texas, senior Advanced Placement English course as an optional reading assignment. Some parents were offended by the book's descriptions of sexual encounters.
2006: Initially banned by Superintendent Ed Lyman from an advanced placement English curriculum in the Judson independent school district in Texas, after a parent complained. Lyman had overruled the recommendation of a committee of teachers, students, and parents; the committee appealed the decision to the school board, which overturned his ban.
2012: Challenged as required reading for a Page High School International Baccalaureate class and as optional reading for Advanced Placement reading courses at Grimsley High School in Greensboro, North Carolina because the book is “sexually explicit, violently graphic and morally corrupt.” Some parents thought the book is “detrimental to Christian values.”[53]

text: According to Education Reporter Kristin Rushowy of the Toronto Star (16 January 2009), in 2008 a parent in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, wrote a letter to his son's high school principal, asking that the book no longer be assigned as required reading, stating that the novel is "rife with brutality towards and mistreatment of women (and men at times), sexual scenes, and bleak depression".[54] Rushowy quotes the response of Russell Morton Brown, a retired University of Toronto English professor, who acknowledged that

text: "The Handmaid's Tale wasn't likely written for 17-year-olds, but neither are a lot of things we teach in high school, like Shakespeare... And they are all the better for reading it. They are on the edge of adulthood already, and there's no point in coddling them," he said, adding, "they aren't coddled in terms of mass media today anyway"... He said the book has been accused of being anti-Christian and, more recently, anti-Islamic because the women are veiled and polygamy is allowed... But that "misses the point", said Brown. "It's really anti-fundamentalism."[54]

text: In her earlier account (14 January 2009), Rushowy reported that a Toronto District School Board committee was "reviewing the novel". While noting that "The Handmaid's Tale is listed as one of the 100 'most frequently challenged books' from 1990 to 1999 on the American Library Association's website", Rushowy reports that "The Canadian Library Association says there is 'no known instance of a challenge to this novel in Canada' but says the book was called anti-Christian and pornographic by parents after being placed on a reading list for secondary students in Texas in the 1990s."[55]

text: In November 2012 two parents in Guilford County, North Carolina protested against inclusion of the book on a required reading list at a local high school. The parents presented the school board with a petition signed by 2,300 people, prompting a review of the book by the school's media advisory committee. According to local news reports, one of the parents said "she felt Christian students are bullied in society, in that they're made to feel uncomfortable about their beliefs by non-believers. She said including books like The Handmaid's Tale contributes to that discomfort, because of its negative view on religion and its anti-biblical attitudes toward sex."[56]

text: Other use in academia[edit]

text: In institutions of higher education, professors have found The Handmaid's Tale to be useful, largely because of its historical and religious basis and Atwood's captivating delivery. The novel's teaching points include: introducing politics and the social sciences to students in a more concrete way;[57][58] demonstrating the importance of reading to our freedom, both intellectual and political;[59] and acknowledging the "most insidious and violent manifestations of power in Western history" in a compelling manner.[60] The chapter entitled "Historical Notes" at the end of the novel also represents a warning to academics who run the risk of misreading and misunderstanding historical texts, pointing to the satirized Professor Pieixoto as an example of a male scholar who has taken over and overpowered Offred's narrative with his own interpretation.[61]

text: In other media[edit]

text: Film[edit]

text: The 1990 film The Handmaid's Tale was based on a screenplay by Harold Pinter and directed by Volker Schlöndorff. It stars Natasha Richardson as Offred, Faye Dunaway as Serena Joy, and Robert Duvall as The Commander (Fred).

text: Television[edit]

text: Hulu has produced a 10-episode series of the novel starring Elisabeth Moss as Offred. The first three episodes were released on April 26, 2017, with subsequent episodes following on a weekly basis. Margaret Atwood served as consulting producer.[62] The show has been renewed for a second season, set to premiere on April 25, 2018.

text: Radio[edit]

text:
A dramatic adaptation of the novel for radio was produced for BBC Radio 4 by John Dryden in 2000.
A Canadian dramatic adaptation for radio was written by playwright Michael O'Brien and produced on CBC Radio in 2002.

text: Audio[edit]

text:
An audiobook of the unabridged text, read by Claire Danes (ISBN 9781491519110), won the 2013 Audie Award for fiction.[63]
In 2014, Canadian band Lakes of Canada released their album Transgressions, which is intended to be a concept album inspired by The Handmaid's Tale.[64]

text: Stage[edit]

text:
A stage adaptation written and directed by Bruce Shapiro played at Tufts University in 1989.[65]
An operatic adaptation, The Handmaid's Tale, by Poul Ruders, premiered in Copenhagen on 6 March 2000, and was performed by the English National Opera, in London, in 2003.[66] It was the opening production of the 2004–2005 season of the Canadian Opera Company.[67]
A stage adaptation of the novel, by Brendon Burns, for the Haymarket Theatre, Basingstoke, England, toured the UK in 2002.[68]
A ballet adaptation choreographed by Lila York and produced by the Royal Winnipeg Ballet premiered on 16 October 2013. Amanda Green appeared as Offred and Alexander Gamayunov as The Commander.[69]
A one-woman stage show, adapted from the novel, by Joseph Stollenwerk premiered in the U.S. in January 2015.[70]